I'm mildly curious what happens when a human rogue phychic at Alpha level is born on a Tau held world. The Tau wouldn't be very susceptible to mind domination having little warp prescence but other things like humans and kroot would be so how would the Tau deal with such an insideous threat? Its not like they can ring the local Inquisitor or Ordo Malleus and humans in the Tau empire probably wouldn't be the most faithful and poius of humans to begin with. So what next?

Writerski7

26-08-2009, 20:12

THey'd incorporate the Human into the Greater Good! Jeez, that's what they always do.

Askil the Undecided

26-08-2009, 20:39

Or the young psyker would awaken, remain untrained get attacked by a deamon/lose control spectacularly and explodes reality open forming a sort on mini eye of terror (lets call it the squint of mild tredidation) the entire planet he's on falls into the warp killing billions and providing chaos with a handy stopping off point for an insurgency into the damocles gulf.

The Tau are all about controllable assets they have little or no understanding of psykers and as such those with psychic genes and powerful active psykers are probably at the top of the sterilisation and execution lists.

In short an Aplha-level is born without the psykana and inquisition to control or eliminate it and the midden hits the windmill, leaving everyone nearby heavily fretilized and to be blunt, utterly fornicated.

sycopat

26-08-2009, 20:40

Alpha level psykers are rarely shown to be anything like subtle. The Tau would likely note the meteoric rise of this human demagogue who claims to have "powers" and put a Pulse round through the back of his head.

For the Greater Good, of course.

Writerski7

26-08-2009, 20:44

Yeah, or that. I figured the Tau would want to study him to develop weapons against Psykers, probably use his abilities to their advantage . . .

Oddly enough there's a Witch Hunters scenario where a rogue psyker is working with the Tau and needs to be eliminated . . .

Gorbad Ironclaw

26-08-2009, 22:58

The Tau wouldn't be very susceptible to mind domination having little warp prescence

Does it say that anywhere? Having a low warp presence doesn't give you any special resistance to psychic powers, at least not until you reach the levels of untouchables with a zero or negative warp presence. But that also adversely affects your interaction with normal living beings and the Tau don't seem to suffer from that.

In many ways I think Tau society would be more vulnerable to psychic manipulation/domination as they don't appear to have many safeguards in place against it or have much experience with it.

baphomael

26-08-2009, 23:01

Alpha level psykers are rarely shown to be anything like subtle. The Tau would likely note the meteoric rise of this human demagogue who claims to have "powers" and put a Pulse round through the back of his head.

For the Greater Good, of course.

Except, being Alpha Level, he'd probably turn said tau wielding pulse-rifle into a pillar of salt. Along with his entire family, home town and possibly everyone to ever lay eyes on him. Alpha Level psykers are pretty badass - the only way to really contain them is through the use of psychic blanks and sheer faith in the God-Emperor. Something the Tau lack in both regards.

Luckily for the Tau, alpha and alpha-plus psykers are extemely rare - once in several lifetime events - and luckily (being so obese on psychic mind-rape) they'd also be likely to burn out quite quickly - their minds in the warp are like an all you can eat buffet dropped into fat-camp. Downside of that, if the alpha level psyker doesnt asplode into an army of sheer, impossible, wrongness it'd probably be so mentally strong it'd be like the fist of an angry god. Wielded by a ********** psychopath.

SabrX

26-08-2009, 23:24

If it's a controllable Alpha Level and was born into the Tau dogma of "For the Greater Good", then I'd imagine the Tau may use it as an asset either on the battlefield or with the water caste, manipulating other non-followers to join the Tau Empire.

Clockwork-Knight

26-08-2009, 23:24

The Tau aren't that ignorant on psychic phemonena, mind you. They know of the psychic abilities of the Nicassar, and hide them before the humans, who are known to react paranoically towards anything with strange mind-powers. They might not yet have encountered an alpha-level psyker capable of turning the planet into vanille pudding, but they know that persons with warp abilities can be quite powerful, and might need restraining.

Col. Tartleton

26-08-2009, 23:25

In your favor you spelled Human right...

Regardless, for all of their "We're the good guys, we should totally hang out and grab a drink after work some time." The Tau are not good. They are quite willing to manipulate you and use you to help their own interests. They are like simpler eldar, but we can't forget they're just as willing to adventure down the "Just shoot anyone who asks any questions" route as the Imperium. They're utterly ruthless, their entirely morality is based on national socialized values of racial superiority and constant expansion.

I can't quite call the Tau a fascist state, but they seem to be much more obviously fascist then the Imperium. The Imperium is more like the Byzantine Empire then anything else. The Tau are starting to look a lot like Mussolini's Blackshirts in the fluff rather than optimistic view people initially assumed.

They're optimists, optimists with blue prints for the future and semi automatics for the present...

So on point they'd shoot the bugger pretty quick and then think nothing of it and go back home to their wives.

[Please note I failed to touch on the Godwins there at all :p]

baphomael

27-08-2009, 09:01

If it's a controllable Alpha Level and was born into the Tau dogma of "For the Greater Good", then I'd imagine the Tau may use it as an asset either on the battlefield or with the water caste, manipulating other non-followers to join the Tau Empire.

Alpha Level psykers are, by their nature, uncontrollable. The best you could hope for is ganking them with a load of psychic blanks and stuffing them in a null-void vault to rot.

Poseidal

27-08-2009, 09:06

Alpha psykers aren't stable. Without the checks that the imperials or other very psychic aware factions you're looking at a daemon incursion.

grissom2006

27-08-2009, 10:25

As i recall most Alpha Level Psykers minds are pretty much all deranged with no mental reasoning and enough power to wipe out a entire world and not know they've done it.

Askil the Undecided

27-08-2009, 11:13

This is a very good point on Alpha psykers the only thing above it the Alpha plus is the kind of power that can safely contain and banish deamons without warding, turn battlefleets into slag, kill hundreds with a glance, move planets in their orbits & sustain itself in space without a ship by wanting there to be air and suchlike. Alpha plus are never, ever, ever, ever sane in any way a normal human would understand.

Aplhas are occaisionally if very, very rarely controllable and sane but when you get into the odds of one sane alpha in ten thousand insane ones considering Alphas are a group that is already about one in fifty billion the odds of one turning up in the tiny number of worlds the Tau rule is laughable.

Poseidal

27-08-2009, 11:27

Can someone tell me where these feats of Alpha (and plus) psykers are stated?

It seems odd because the Emperor never had any of these feats, but he is stated to be the most powerful human psyker ever. Tigurius is another who's stated as one of the most powerful, and he can't do these things either.

From the impression I got, the more powerful the psyker, the bigger the interest from Daemons of chaos.

Tapping into those powers with that sort of mind seems to need training and warding (SM librarians, the Emperor, primaris and Eldar psykers all have to do a lot to do things safely; Orks are naturally resiliant, though still uncontrollable; Chaos ones are in direct league with Chaos anyway, and with all their gifts you can see what they can do as well)

Note in the Daemons book, a kid just mucking around with this stuff behind people's backs caused a Nurgle infestation. An 'Alpha level' as described must be a Bloodthirster Beacon.

Allen

27-08-2009, 11:31

Tau may know something about the Immaterium and psychic abilities, but they know nothing about the psychic-suppressive technology employed by the Imperium and the indoctrination used to keep at bay and train manifested psykers.

Any kind of psyker on a Tau controlled planet is basically a great amount of problem for the Tau authorities: any untrained witch, according to background, is a beacon for daemons. Sooner or later some warp entity will notice the untrained psyker and use it as a portal/puppet. Tau are not trained to identify the early signal of demonic possession, and are not able to employ psy-suppression devices.

An untrained alpha-level psyker on a Tau planet...well, that's an extinction-level event for that planet. Luckily for those blue skinned freaks GW provided the Tau Empire with a "heavy plot armour +3 against everything".

Mannimarco

27-08-2009, 11:54

a lot of what we attribute to alpha level psykers is actually alpha plus level psykers it would seem, according to wikipedia anyway (which i know can be full of innacuracies but still)

An Alpha Plus, however, is a being of grotesque power. They are described in the 4th edition Rulebook as being able to "turn a man inside-out with a glance", "snap a Battle Titan in half with a flick of the wrist", and "a muttered syllable can turn an army upon itself in a frenzy of bloodlust". They are capable of destroying entire worlds - sometimes unintentionally.

oh and a taus plot armour is closer to a 2+ with rerolls

massey

27-08-2009, 13:09

What would happen if an alpha psyker got loose on a Tau world?

Watch Akira. That's what would happen.

grissom2006

27-08-2009, 13:33

Not sure if the reprinted version of the Deathwing book has the story in of the boy who opens up a portal so a Chaos Titan can enter the world is in it.

But the boy gets taught by the whispering voice in his head (turns out to be the Titan) how to do what he does and control it. A Inquisitor dashes off in such of the boy having had vision through his Tarot Cards fearing a Star Child (which i think are now Alpha Level Psykers). The boy opens up the portal and something happens that makes him see the future and lashes out at the Titan.

massey

27-08-2009, 18:09

The big-time level of psykers have all sorts of different abilities. Call them alphas, alpha-plus, whatever you want, they're powerful. They seem to be fairly evenly split between the unstable ones and the ones who can just do whatever they want. The unstable ones tend to go all Tetsuo and cause untold devastation simply by their presence. They're the ones you have to worry about least. The stable ones are more dangerous.

Tonight's story on The Twilight Zone is somewhat unique and calls for a different kind of introduction. This, as you may recognize, is a map of the United States, and there's a little town there called Peaksville. On a given morning not too long ago, the rest of the world disappeared and Peaksville was left all alone. Its inhabitants were never sure whether the world was destroyed and only Peaksville left untouched or whether the village had somehow been taken away. They were, on the other hand, sure of one thing: the cause. A monster had arrived in the village. Just by using his mind, he took away the automobiles, the electricity, the machines - because they displeased him - and he moved an entire community back into the dark ages - just by using his mind. Now, I'd like to introduce you to some of the people in Peaksville, Ohio. This is Mr. Fremont. It's in his farmhouse that the monster resides. This is Mrs. Fremont. And this is Aunt Amy, who probably had more control over the monster in the beginning than almost anyone. But one day she forgot. She began to sing aloud. Now, the monster doesn't like singing, so his mind snapped at her, turned her into the smiling, vacant thing you're looking at now. She sings no more. And you'll note that the people in Peaksville, Ohio, have to smile. They have to think happy thoughts and say happy things because once displeased, the monster can wish them into a cornfield or change them into a grotesque, walking horror. This particular monster can read minds, you see. He knows every thought, he can feel every emotion. Oh yes, I did forget something, didn't I? I forgot to introduce you to the monster. This is the monster. His name is Anthony Fremont. He's six years old, with a cute little-boy face and blue, guileless eyes. But when those eyes look at you, you'd better start thinking happy thoughts, because the mind behind them is absolutely in charge. This is the Twilight Zone.

Writerski7

27-08-2009, 18:36

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Geez, some of the best and most entertaining minds reside in Warseer . . .

On the note of power an Alpha-level Psyker is, I'd have to change my opinion and say the Tau will try and will willingly let the Imperium invade (even beg them to invade) just to get this psychopath out of their hair.

Condottiere

27-08-2009, 19:46

Tau like thinking happy thoughts, or at least, they encourage it.

Lowmans

27-08-2009, 19:47

This is one of the reasons I think the Tau will end up declaring humans as incompatible with the greater good.

Even if they ended up conquering the galaxy, humans are too much of a problem in terms of uncontrolled psykers. You either have the daemonic possession or insane megalomaniac problem or the human race edges toward maturity. Humanity as a psychically mature race isn't going to be the something the Tau can accept or cope with either.

Clockwork-Knight

27-08-2009, 19:52

Nah, they'd just start psychic examination centers, where the extreme cases are sent on a planet with cornfields on it...

Of course, in a few centuries, at max a few millennia, the entire mankind will become a complete psychic race like the eldar or the orks, but without the Emperor teaching all of mankind how to shield themselves, they're all going to be turned into enslaver-tortillas, psychneuin-brain-jelly, or daemon-soup, so yeah, the tau worlds with humans on them will be hosed.

With a little luck, the Tyranids will have eaten all humans (and tau) before this happens... Or an ork waaagh will destroy the tau before... Or the Necrons and their star vampire gods will disconnect reality from imaterium and then eat brainwaves for kicks andd fun...

Death awaits all... :D

Asi the Red

28-08-2009, 16:29

I think they'd be hosed, that or they'd very quickly learn that you can short circuit psykers with EMP blasts...

Askil the Undecided

29-08-2009, 00:07

This all depends of course on if the psyker is a nice guy or not he basically has a snowballs chance in hell of being sane it's just a question of what (if anything) found him so far and how his inherent mental instability manifests.

If he's psychotically violent then you are dead. If he's just really, really keen on singing along to that tune that's been stuck in your head all morning then you're probably fine if a little freaked out.

Here's a link to lex's assignment page for some clarification of the power of the Imperium's psychic level system (http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/The_Assignment)

Daver X

29-08-2009, 00:34

Or the Tau empire calls upon the nicassar to train/deal with the alpha level psyker and simply facilitate the transferance, or level the place where the psyker is from orbit before he is aware of the negible warp signature of a tau cruiser